Football glove



June 5, 1962 l.. T. APPLEGATE, JR., ETAL 3,037,209

FOOTBALL GLOVE Filed Nov.-18, 1960 AT TKA/Ey 3,037,20?) Patented `lune5, 1962 3,037,209 FOOTBALL GLVE Lesliel T. Applegate, Jr., and Hector E.Lewis, Cincinnati, Ohio, assignors to Surgical Appliance Industries,Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Filed Nov. 18, 1960, Ser.No. 70,223 2 Claims. (Cl. 2--20) The present invention relates toathletic protective equipment and is particularly directed to a footballglove effective to protect the back of a players hand from cuts,lacerations, bruises and the like.

In the past it has been the practice to protect the hands of manyfootball players, particularly linesmen, by taping the hands withconventional adhesive tape, the tape running across the back of the handand across the palm. While this taping does offer some protectionagainst cleat injuries and the like, it is less than totallysatisfactory for several reasons.

Principal among these reasons is that the tape tends to unduly restrictmovement of the hand and tends to bunch along the palm. Thus, the tapemakes it exceedingly diflicult for a player -to properly handle afootball; i.e., it makes `it diliicult to catch a ball or to pass it.Moreover, properly applying tape to a players hands requires anappreciable amount of time of a skilled trainer. Many small colleges,secondary schools, and the like, do not have a suliicient amount oftrainer personnel to tape every player on the squad. Consequently, manyplayers are forced to play without any protective hand coveringwhatsoever.

It has also been proposed in the past to provide heavy pad-like glovesto protect the back of a players hand. These gloves have usually beenformed of leather and are subject to most of the disadvantages oftaping. Specilically, these heavy leather gloves have restrictedmovement of the hand and because the gloves have a leather palm pieceextending arcoss all or a substantial portion of a players hand, thesegloves also make handling of a football exceedingly difficult. Anotherdisadvantage of heavy leather-type gloves is that the gloves causelocalized pressure on various areas of the rear surface of the handwhich may be exceedingly uncomfortable to the wearer if these areas yofhigh pressure happen to coincide with a previously injured area.

The principal object of the present invention is to provide a novel typeof protect-ive glove which is effective to provide a maximum amount ofprotection to a players hand while at the same time providing maximumfreedom of movement for his hand. Or viewed differently, the principalobject of the present invention is to provide a glove which aliordscomplete protective covering for the back of a pl-ayers hand, while atthe same time leaving a maximum portion of his palm :and lingers exposedso that a player in effect is able to handle a football as though he hadno glove on at all.

More particularly, the present invention contemplates a glove formed ofan elastic knitted fabric such as that now currently used in knee bracesand the like. The glove is shaped so that it extends completely acrossthe rear surface of a players hand and includes a wrist band whichencircles the players wrist to secure the lower portion of the glove inplace. The present glove also includes two narrow liaps which areoverfolded and stitched to the rear piece to form two spaced lingerstalls for receiving a players little linger and index linger. A largearcuate opening is formed in the palm portion of the glove so that noportion of the glove extends across the players palm or across histhumb, middle linger or third linger. Thus, while the entire backportion of the players hand is covered, his entire palm is free to gripthe ball and all of his finger areas are free except for two very narrowbands across lthe base of his index linger and little finger.

The present glove further includes a pocket which is formed on the rearsurface of the glove and receives a flexible protective pad, such as asponge rubber pad or a slow rebound cellular pad coated with a vinyl orother water impervious coating. This pad is substantially coextensive ofthe entire rear surface of the players hand and is extremely effectiveto protect his skin, tendons, bones and knuckles from injury.Nevertheless, because the pad is liexible and is pulled evenly againstthe rear surface of the players hand by the stretchable glove member,there are no areas of pressure to irritate -a players hand. When theglove is in position, the outward edge of the pad is preferably disposedjust outwardly of the finger knuckles so that the knuckles are fullyprotected without greatly affecting the mobility of the lingers. Thisrelationship is shown generally in FIGURE 1.

One of the principal advantages of the present glove is that while itprovides maximum protection for a players hand, the glove also providesmaximum freedom of movement and a maximum of free palm and linger areato grip a ball.

Another advantage of the present glove is that it is extremelylightweight and lits very snugly so that a player is practically unawarethat he is wearing a glove.

A still further advantage of the present glove is that it can readily bewashed and reused. Moreover, the glove is quite inexpensive to produceso that should a glove become worn after a period of use it can 'bereplaced at a very low cost. This replacement is further facilitated bythe fact that a glove can be worn equally well on either hand, i.e.,there are no rights and leftsf Consequently, the present gloves are verypractical for use not only by professionals and large schools, but alsoby small schools operating on a limited budget.

These and other objects and advantages of the present invent-ion will bemore readily apparent from a consideration of the following detaileddescription of the drawings illustrating a preferred embodiment of theinvention.

In the drawings:

FGURE l is an elevational view of a palm of a wearers hand showing themanner in which the present glove is worn.

FIGURE 2 is a perspective view of a glove constructed in accordance withthe present invention.

FIGURE 3 is an elevational view Showing the back portion of the glove.

FIGURE 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 4 4 of FIGURE 3.

As is best shown in FIGURES l and 2, a preferred form of glove illfabricated in accordance with the principles of the present invention isshaped to cover the back of a players hand to protect his hand againstcuts, lacerations and bruises. The glove body lll is preferably formedof heavy knitted elastic two-way stretch fabric, although it iscontemplated that the glove can be formed of one-way stretch fabric, thefabric being oriented so that the elastic threads extend transversely,i.e., across the back of a players hand from thumb to little finger.

The body of the glove is of one-piece construction and includes a backface portion 12 and a wrist encircling, or band, portion 13. Two lingerstalls 14 and l5 are formed adjacent to the edge of the glove remotefrom the wrist band portion i3. Each of these linger stalls is formed bystitching a narrow, overturned llap lli-i7 to the rear face 12 as atlS-l.

The side edges of the rear face are congurated so that they form a largearcuate opening 20 on the palm face of the glove. As is shown in FIGURE1, the side opening of this glove is such that when the glove is inposition on a wearers hand, substantially the entire palm B of thewearer is exposed. It is to be understood that the periphery of thisopening as Well as the other exposed edges of the glove are providedwith a suitable binding 21 which is applied to the glove in aconventional manner.

In addition to the elements described above, the glove is furtherprovided with a pocket 22 disposed beneath the rear surface of the gloveand substantially coextensive therewith. The pocket is formed bystitching a generally rectangular piece of elastic fabric 23 about itsperiphery to the inner surface of the rear portion ft2 of the glove.This pocket forming piece 23 is formed of an elastic Inaterial which maybe of the same weight as is used in the glove or alternatively may `beof a lighter weight. The elastic pocket forming piece 23 is stitchedalong its side edges 24 and 25 and along its upper edge 26.Additionally, the endwise portions 27 and 23 of the bottom edge pocketforming piece 23 are stitched to the rear face of the glove. However, acenter portion 39 along the bottom edge of the pocket forming piece isnot stitched to the glove body to form an opening to pocket 22, whichopening is narrower than the width of the pocket.

Pocket 22 receives `a resilient pad 31 formed of sponge rubber or thelike. One particular form of pad is a vinyl coated slow rebound cellularpad fabricated from polyvinyl chloride sponge having a closed orunicellular structure. Pad 31 substantially fills pocket 22 and is thussubstantially coextensive with the rear surface of glove 1t). Pad 3l isinselted in the pocket by stretching opening 3@ and is thereafter heldin place by stitched portions 27 and 7.8.

As is apparent from FIGURES 3 and 4, in the preferred embodiment, gloveis symmetrical about its vertical center line. Consequently, the gloveis equally adapted to be Worn on either the right or left hand.Consequently, a team using the gloves of the present invention merelystocks a number of gloves and pads without concern for rights and leftsBefore being put into use, a rubber pad is inserted in the pocket 22 ineach glove. A player dons a glove by inserting his hand through wriststrap opening 13. Since this wrist strap is stretchable no difficulty isencountered in pulling the strap down over a players hand. The playerthen inserts his index finger through one of the finger stalls (stall lein FIGURE l), and his little finger in the opposite stall (stall l5' inFIGURE 1). When the glove is in place as shown in FIGURE 1, the openingZ3 of the glove is of substantially the same size as a players palm.Thus, the player wearing a glove has his whole palm plus his thumb,middle finger and his third finger completely exposed. Also, most of hislittle finger and index finger are exposed. With so much of his handexposed and with no restraint on bending his hand or lingers, a playercan grip a football as in passing, catching, punting, centering, or thelike, with maximum freeness and sureness. Nevertheless, all of the backof a players hand is well protected against injury by pad 22.

From the foregoing disclosure of the principles of the present inventionand the `above description of a preferred embodiment, those skilled inthe art will readily comprehend various modifications to which theinvention is susceptible. Therefore, we desire to be limited only by thescope of the following claims.

Having described our invention, we claim:

1. A protective glove comprising a rear portion shaped to extendcompletely across the back of a wearers hand and having spaced endportions, a wrist strap joined to said rear portion at one end thereofand forming a loop adapted to embrace a wearers wrist, narrow overturnedflap portions disposed adjacent to the other end of said rear portion,means securing said flap portions to said rear portion whereby said flapportions define two spaced linger stalls, said rear portion havingedgewise portions dening a cut out of substantially the same size as awearers palm, said glove being substantially symmetrical about avertical center line whereby said glove may be worn on either hand andmeans defining a pocket on the rear portion of said glove.

2. A protective glove formed from stretchable material comprising a rearportion shaped to extend unbrokenly over the entire back of the wearershand from the wrist to the area outwardly of the knuckles and a wriststrap joined to said rear portion adjacent the inner end thereof andforming a loop adapted to embrace the wearers wrist, narrow overturnedflap portions disposed adjacent to the edges of said rear portionadjacent the outer end thereof, means securing said flap portions tosaid rear portion to define two spaced finger stalls, said glove beinggenerally symmetrical about a vertical line whereby said glove may beworn on either hand, means defining a pocket on said rear portion and aresilient pad disposed within said pocket, said pad and pocket beingsubstantially coextensive in area with the rear portion with the outwardedge of the pad disposed outwardly of the knuckles.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

